The Panama Canal and the Canal Zone

The PANAMA CANAL really is amazing, both physically and in concept. The basis of the country’s modern economy, it’s also the key to much of its history: were it not for the US government’s determination to build the waterway, Panama might never have come into existence as an independent republic. Construction on the project began in the late nineteenth century, initiated by the French, but their efforts were abandoned in 1893, having taken the lives of nearly 22,000 workers through disease. The US took up the construction just over ten years later, aided by more powerful machinery than the French had been using, and improved understanding of malaria, yellow fever and the engineering that was necessary. The job was finally finished in 1914, the isthmus having been breached by the 77km-long canal, with vessels raised from and lowered to sea level by three sets of locks totalling 5km in length.

From 1903 to 1977, the strip of land that extends 8km on either side of the canal was de facto US territory, an area known as the Canal Zone. After more than ninety years the waterway was finally handed over to Panamanian jurisdiction at midnight on December 31, 1999, to be managed thereafter by the Autoridad del Canal de Panamá (ACP). In 2006 a proposal for a US$5 billion expansion of the canal, due to be completed in 2015, was approved first by President Torrijos and then by public referendum. The ACP claims that the expansion will directly benefit Panama’s people, though critics contend that the country will be crippled by debt – the project will be paid for by increased tolls, supplemented by US$2.3 billion in loans – and that only the elite of society will benefit.

A day-trip from Panama City could see you scanning the rainforest canopy for harpy eagles from the top of a former radar station, taking in the engineering masterpiece of the Miraflores Locks, or visiting an indigenous Emberá community in Parque Nacional Chagres. If you’re in the mood for hiking, try out the celebrated routes of Camino de Cruces and the Pipeline Road in Parque Nacional Soberanía. A cool and comfortable early-morning train ride on the Panama Canal Railway to Colón gives wonderful panoramic views of the canal and the rainforest, and from the city it’s a hot and bumpy bus ride northeast along the coast to the colonial ruins of Portobelo.

Explore

Find out more

Miraflores Locks

Heading north out of Panama City along the canal, the first sight of note is the Miraflores Locks. The first lock gates here are the tallest in the whole canal system. Even so, they open in just two minutes, guiding ships through by electric locomotives known as mules. The visitor complex is a ten-minute walk from the point on the main road where any Gamboa- or Paraíso-bound bus from Panama City can drop you off – just ask the driver. The best time to see ships passing through is 8am to 11am, when they come up from the Pacific side, and after 3pm, when they complete their transit from the Atlantic side. There is an overpriced café here, as well as an expensive restaurant and a souvenir shop.

Parque Nacional Soberanía

Stretching along the eastern flank of the canal, the 220-square-kilometre PARQUE NACIONAL SOBERANÍA provides essential protection for the rainforest-covered watershed that is vital for the canal’s continued operation. Just thirty minutes from Panama City by road, Soberanía is the most easily accessible national park in Panama and is popular with both locals and visitors. Most spend just a few hours exploring one of the trails, which are mostly well marked and pass over rugged terrain cloaked in pristine rainforest, offering reasonable odds of seeing monkeys and innumerable birds as well as smaller mammals such as sloths and agoutis.

You can collect trail information and pay the entrance fee at the park office, where the road to Gamboa branches off the main road from Panama City. Indicate to the bus driver that you want to go to the park office. If you ring in advance you may be able to engage the services of a park warden as a guide.

All the trails have something to recommend them, but a few stand out. The 24km Pipeline Road (Camino del Oleoducto), accessed from Gamboa, is world famous for its birding opportunities; you can also visit the excellent, but costly, nearby Rainforest Discovery Centre, whose highlight is a canopy observation tower. Plantation Road, which begins at a right-hand turn-off 1.5km past the Summit Botanical Gardens and Zoo – tell the bus driver where you want to get off – follows a stream and offers great birdwatching. It runs some 4km to an intersection with the 10km Camino de las Cruces, the only trail for which you would need a guide. The Camino is a remnant of the cobbled track that the Spanish colonists used to transport their goods and treasures to Portobelo on the Caribbean coast.

Parque Nacional Chagres

East of the older highway that connects Panama City with Colón – the Transístmica – lies Parque Nacional Chagres, 1290 square kilometres of mountainous rainforest comprising four different life zones that are home to more than three hundred bird species and several Emberá communities displaced by the flooding of Lago Bayano, further east.

Day-trips to the park include transport – bus from Panama City – followed by a glorious trip by motorized dugout up the Río Chagres, a rainforest walk, a traditional meal, and the opportunity to buy handicrafts directly from producers. Note that sometimes these Emberá villages can be overrun with cruise ship groups (Dec–April); you’ll find fewer visitors in the Emberá communities of the Darién.

Canal geography

From the Bahía de Panamá on the country’s Pacific coast, the canal runs at sea level approximately 6km inland to the Miraflores Locks, where ships are raised some 16.5m to Lago de Miraflores. About 2km further on, ships are raised another 10m to the canal’s maximum elevation of 26.5m above sea level, after which they enter the Gaillard Cut. This 14km slice through the shifting shale of the continental divide was the deepest and most difficult section of the canal’s construction and was plagued by devastating landslides and loss of life.

The canal channel continues for 38km across the broad expanse of Lago Gatún, once the largest artificial lake in the world. Covering 420 square kilometres, it is tranquil and stunningly beautiful; until you see an ocean-going ship appear from behind one of the densely forested headlands, it’s difficult to believe that this is part of one of the busiest waterways in the world. At the lake’s far end ships are brought back down to sea level in three stages by the Gatún Locks, after which they run 3km through a narrow cut into the calm Caribbean waters of Bahía Limón.